Clapham with him. It is the maid's day out, and Mrs Todd was.
at the sales, so there is no one in the house. When the theft is
.discovered and Davis is missing, the implication will be
overwhelming. Davis is the thiefl Mr Simpsgn will be perfectly
safe, and can return to work on the morrow like the honest clerk
they think him.'
'And Davis?'
Poirot made an expressive gesture, and slowly shook his
head.
'It seems too cold-blooded to be believed, and yet what oe6;
explanation can there be, mon am/. The one difficulty for a
murderer is the disposal of the body - and Simpson had
planned that out beforehand. I was struck at once by the fact
that although Eliza Dunn obviously meant to return that night
when she went out (witness her remark about the stewed
peaches) yet her trunk vxt$ all ready tnzcked vahen they came for
it. It was Simpson who sent word to Carter Paterson to call on
Friday and it was Simpson who corded up the box on
Thursday afternoon. What suspicion could possibly arise? A
maid leaves and sends for her box, it is labelled and addressed
ready in her name, probably to a railway station within easy
reach of London. On Saturday afternoon, Simpson, in his
Australian disguise, claims it, he afl'utes a new label and address
and redespatches it somewhere else, again "to be left till called
for". When the authorities get suspicious, for excellent reasons,
and open it, all that can be elicited will be that a bearded
colonial despatched it from some junction near London. There
will be nothing to connect it with 88 Prince Albert Road. Ah!
Here we are.'
Poirot's prognostications had been correa. Simpson had left
days previously. But he was not to escape the consequences of
his crime. By the a/d of wireless, he was discovered on the Olympia, en route to America.
A tin trunk, addreai to Mr Henry Wintergreen, attracted
the attention of railway offidals at Glasgow. It was opened and
found to contain the body of the unfortunate Davis.
Mrs Todd's cheque for a guinea was never cashed. Instead
Poirot had it framed and hung on, the wall of our sitting-room.
'It is to me a little reminder, Hastings. Never to deapiae the
trivial - the undignified. A disappearing domestic at one end a
cold-blooded murder at the other. To me one of the most i,,y cases.'
258 '
ALSO BY AGATHA CHRISTIE
Murder in
Mesopotamia
Nurse Amy Leatheran had a most unusual patient.
Louise, according to her husband, celebrated
archaeologist Dr Leiclner, suffered from 'nervous
terror'. Her fantasies were vivid and horrifying: a
disembodied hand, a yellow, dead face pressed
against the window. Who or what did she fear?
At the site of a dig in the Iraqi desert, surely she was
safe from danger. Most of the expedition were old
colleagues and friends. Yet they seemed an unnatu-rally
formal group - there was tension, uneasiness
even, in the air. Something very sinister was going
on, and it involved ... murder.
258
ALSO BY AGATHA CHRISTIE
Ordeal by Innocence
The verdict is murder...
And while serving a life sentence for killing his
mother, Jacko Argyle dies. Two years later, a
stranger shatters the peace of the Argyle household.
Can Arthur Calgary provide the missing link in
Jacko's defence? Was ]acko sentenced for a murder
he didn't commit?
And if Jacko didn't murder his mother.., who did?
ALSO BY AGATHA CHRISTIE
The ABC Murders
A is for Andover - and Mrs Ascher battered to
death.
B is for Bexhill - and Betty Barnard is strangled.
C is for Sir Carmichael Clarke clubbed and killed.
Beside each body lay a copy of the ABC Railway
Guide - open at the relevant page. The police were
baffled. But the murderer had already made a grave
mistake. He had challenged Hercule Poirot to
unmask him...
'The acknowledged queen of detective fiction.'
OBSERVER
ALSO BY AGATHA CHRISTIE
Taken at
the Flood
Gordon Cloade is killed in an air-raid on London.
He has left no will and his vast fortune passes to his
young wife, Rosaleen.
But five other people have been promised a share in
that fortune - five people who desperately need the
money. Now it can only become theirs if Rosaleen
should happen to die before them.
There are five people with a strong motive for
murder and violent murder is committed.
But Rosaleen is not the victim.
'Miss Christie is a master of the art of the cosy
murder story told briskly, vivaciously, and with
ever-fertile imagination.'
MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS
ALSO BY AGATHA CHRISTIE
Elephants Can
Remember
Hercule Poirot stood on the cliff overlooking the
rocks below and the sea breaking against them.
Here, where he stood, the bodies of a husband and
wife had been found. Here, three weeks before that,
a woman had walked in her sleep and fallen to her
death.
Why had these things happened ... ?
'A classic example of the ingenious three-card trick
that she has been playing on us for so many years.'
SUNDAY EXPRESS
'Splendid ... she tells us all we want to know and
nothing that is irrelevant.'
THE TIMES
ALSO BY AGATHA CHRISTIE
The Seven
Dials Mystery
Seven clocks ticking ominously in a suicide's room
and a dying friend whose last words are 'seven dials'
lead dapper Jimmy Thesiger and his irrepressible
girlfriend to a Soho club.
There they learn of the Seven Dials Society: seven
masked conspirators who meet in a secret room to
talk about stealing scientific secrets - and plan the
next murder...
'Her gift is pure genius.'
OBSERVER
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